Bestselling writer and psychotherapist Irvin D. Yalom puts himself on the couch in a “candid, insightful” memoir​.

Irvin D. Yalom has made a career of investigating the lives of others. In this profound memoir, he turns his writing and his therapeutic eye on himself.

He opens his story with a nightmare: He is twelve, and is riding his bike past the home of an acne-scarred girl. Like every morning, he calls out, hoping to befriend her, "Hello Measles!" But in his dream, the girl's father makes Yalom understand that his daily greeting had hurt her. For Yalom, this was the birth of empathy; he would not forget the lesson.

As Becoming Myself unfolds, we see the birth of the insightful thinker whose books have been a beacon to so many. This is not simply a man's life story, Yalom's reflections on his life and development are an invitation for us to reflect on the origins of our own selves and the meanings of our lives.

Adult cognitive development is one of the most important yet most neglected aspects in the study of human psychology. Although the development of cognition and intelligence during childhood and adolescence is of great interest to researchers, educators, and parents, many assume that this development stops progressing in any significant manner when people reach adulthood. In fact, cognition and intelligence do continue to progress in very significant ways. In this second edition of Developmental Influences on Adult Intelligence, K. Warner Schaie presents the history, latest data, and results from the Seattle Longitudinal Study (SLS). The purpose of the SLS is to study various aspects of psychological development during the adult years. Initiated in 1956 and focusing on a random sample of 500 adults ranging in age from 25 to 95 years old, the SLS is organized around five questions: Does intelligence change uniformly throughout adulthood, or are there different life-course-ability patterns? At what age and at what magnitude can decrement in ability be reliably detected? What are the patterns and magnitude of generational differences? What accounts for individual differences in age-related change in adulthood? Can the intellectual decline that increases with age be reversed by educational intervention? The first edition of the book provided an account of the SLS through the 1998 (seventh wave) data collection and of the associated family study through the 1996 (second wave) data collection. Since that time, Schaie and his collaborators have conducted several additional data collections. These include a further longitudinal follow-up in 2005/06, a longitudinal follow-up and 3rd data collection for the family study in 2003/04, and acquisition of a 3rd generation sample in 2002. Hence, virtually all of the content from the first edition has been updated and expanded, and three new chapters are included on Health Behaviors and Intellectual Functioning, Biological Influences on Cognitive Change, and Prediction of Individual Cognitive Decline. This new edition is a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners specializing in adult development, aging, and adult education, as well as students and faculty in developmental, cognitive, and social psychology, psychiatry, nursing, social work, and the social sciences interested in issues of human aging.

"Aging and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder" (PTSD) explores the psychological sequelae of severe trauma in elderly patients and the manifestations in old age of psychological symptoms secondary to trauma experienced earlier in life. Although methodological issues have made the scientific study of PTSD difficult, a number of well-designed research projects have begun to identify some of the key factors of aging and PTSD.

Do elderly patients respond differently to stress than younger people, and do the effects of early stress change over time? These questions are the focus of the book's 22 contributors. Research with World War II combat veterans, Holocaust survivors, elderly victims of trauma, and abused elderly persons provides new insight into why they might experience trauma differently than younger individuals. Longitudinal data collected over a 14-year period provide a fascinating comparison of psychological distress and PTSD among older and younger people.

This book considers what work and retirement mean for older women, how each is experienced, and how working fits with other facets of their lives. The authors draw on data collected from women themselves, employers, industry stakeholders and older workers' advocates, to explore older women's experiences of work and retirement against a backdrop of current policy efforts to extend working lives in response to ageing societies. Contrary to common representations of the situation of older workers, the data reveal how workplaces can be seen as relatively benign, and retirement viewed positively. It contributes to academic debate regarding identity, purpose and meaning in later life, identifying challenges for work-focused public policy. Students and scholars of human resource management, sociology, gerontology and social policy will appreciate the extension of understanding older women's life course trajectories that the book offers. Public policy-makers will benefit from the different representations of older women in the book, and the identification of where they would benefit from policy changes.

"Americans at Midlife" is an exploration of the middle years within the framework of trends in the larger society, including longer life expectancy and an aging population; changes in marriage, divorce, and family composition; increased participation of women in the labor force; and the growth of two-income families.Major interests at midlife center around work and careers, current and future economic well-being, and planning for retirement. Other major concerns involve relationships with younger and older generations: boomerang kids who leave home and return, and aging parents, often healthy and active now, who may need care in their later years.

The book begins with a discussion of how demographic and social changes affect midlife, followed by chapters on work and retirement planning or looking for the good years, the not-so-empty nest, and aging parents. A chapter on mid-life women considers the implications of combining work and caregiving and raises concerns about their economic well-being, given their longer life expectancy and often more limited resources. The book ends with a consideration of policy issues that may affect midlife in the future.

Encouraging older people to age in place in their own homes is a common response internationally to the economic and social demands of population ageing. It is recognized that the nature of the built environment at various scales is critical to optimizing the social participation and wellbeing of older people and hence in facilitating ageing in place. This insightful book showcases a range of design, planning and policy responses to ageing populations from across the rapidly changing and dynamic Western Asia-Pacific region. Ageing in Place considers diverse cultural, political and environmental contexts and responses to show that regional governments, industries and communities can gain, as well as offer, important insights from their international counterparts. With significant changes in caring, family dynamics and the supporting roles of governments in both Eastern and Western societies, the chapters demonstrate a clear and increasingly convergent preference for and promotion of ageing in place and the need for collaborative efforts to facilitate this through policy and practice. The unique geographical focus and multi-disciplinary perspective of this book will greatly benefit academic researchers and students from a variety of backgrounds including architecture, urban planning, sociology and human geography. It also provides a unique entry point for practitioners seeking to understand the principles of design and practice for ageing in place in homes, neighbourhoods and care facilities.

One of the few studies of how the elderly help others through formal and informal volunteerism. While a large number of studies focus on the help older people receive from relatives and friends, this work examines the many ways in which older people are involved in giving care to others. Written by a sociologist and based on a stratified sample of hundreds of individuals, this study assesses a number of dimensions of care giving. While much of this labor goes unnoticed, it is central to the building and maintenance of family and community ties, and reveals ways in which social life is organized around aging, gender, and marriage. Patterns of formal volunteerism and informal care are studied in relation to age, sex, marital status, and other important variables that affect this essential but underplayed aspect of American community life.

You know you're having a senior moment when you decide it's time to pull up your socks - and realize you forgot to put any on! Age is just a number and you're only as old as you feel, but if you're heading into your golden years and you're certifiably "no spring chicken", you might benefit from browsing through the pages of this tongue-in-cheek book to help you decide if your marbles just need a polish or you've well and truly lost them! Inside you'll find examples of classic "senior moments", such as: Ringing a friend to ask them for their phone number. Getting annoyed at the fact that your all-in-one remote won't open your garage door. Going to the store for milk and coming home with a new dog collar, rawl plugs, some plant pots that were on special offer... but no milk. Feeling frustrated by your computer's instructions to "press any key", when there's no "Any" key on your keyboard. With a sprinkling of reassuring quotes from fellow old-timers, this collection will help you see the funny side of getting older (but not necessarily wiser).

Mortality, With Friends is a collection of lyrical essays from Fleda Brown, a writer and caretaker, of her father and sometimes her husband, who lives with the nagging uneasiness that her cancer could return. Memoir in feel, the book muses on the nature of art, of sculpture, of the loss of bees and trees, the end of marriages, and among other things, the loss of hearing and of life itself. Containing twenty-two essays, Mortality, With Friends follows the cascade of loss with the author's imminent joy in opening a path to track her own growing awareness and wisdom. In ""Donna,"" Brown examines a childhood friendship and questions the roles we need to play in each other's lives to shape who we might become. In ""Native Bees,"" Brown expertly weaves together the threads of a difficult family tradition intended to incite happiness with the harsh reality of current events. In ""Fingernails, Toenails,"" she marvels at the attention and suffering that accompanies caring for our aging bodies. In ""Mortality, with Friends,"" Brown dives into the practical and stupefying response to her own cancer and survival. In ""2019: Becoming Mrs. Ramsay,"" she remembers the ghosts of her family and the strident image of herself, positioned in front of her Northern Michigan cottage. Comparable to Lia Purpura's essays in their density and poetics, Brown's intent is to look closely, to stay with the moment and the image. Readers with a fondness for memoir and appreciation for art will be dazzled by the beauty of this collection.

In 1963, Betty Friedan's transcendent work, The Feminine Mystique, changed forever the way women thought about themselves and the way society thought about women. In 1993, with The Fountain of Age, Friedan changes forever the way all of us, men and women, think about ourselves as we grow older and the way society thinks about aging. Struggling to hold on to the illusion of youth, we have denied the reality and evaded the new triumphs of growing older. We have seen age only as decline. In this powerful and very personal book, which may prove even more liberating than The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan charts her own voyage of discovery, and that of others, into a different kind of aging. She finds ordinary men and women, moving into their fifties, sixties, seventies, discovering extraordinary new possibilities of intimacy and purpose. In their surprising experiences, Friedan first glimpsed, then embraced, the idea that one can grow and evolve throughout life in a style that dramatically mitigates the expectation of decline and opens the way to a further dimension of "personhood." The Fountain of Age suggests new possibilities for every one of us, all founded on a solid body of startling but little-known scientific evidence. It demolishes those myths that have constrained us for too long and offers compelling alternatives for living one's age as a unique, exuberant time of life, on its own authentic terms. Age as adventure! In these pages, film producers and beauticians, salespersons and college professors, union veterans and business tycoons, former (and forever) housewives, male and female empty-nesters and retirees, have crossed the chasm of age... and kept going. They have foundfulfillment beyond career, bonding that transcends youthful dreams of happily-ever-after, and a richer, sweeter intimacy not tied to mechanical measures of sexual activity, but to deep and honest sharing. While gerontologists focus on care, illness, and the concept of age as deterio

Senior adult ministry isn't what it used to be. The comfortable assumptions and outdated programs that were the basis for local church ministry are being challenged. Baby boomers are hitting middle age and retirement. And their own parents are living longer. Authors Win and Charles Arn have updated and supplemented Catch the Age Wave with ideas, examples and advice to help the local church leader start and maintain a senior adult program. In addition, they have added practical program ideas to use in any local church setting. New challenges for a new day. Catch the Age Wave won't let you miss the boat.

Population ageing poses a huge challenge to law and society, carrying important structural and institutional implications. This book portrays elder law as an emerging research discipline in the European setting in terms of both conceptual and theoretical perspectives as well as elements of the law. Providing a deepened understanding of population ageing in terms of vulnerability, intergenerational conflict and solidarity, expert contributors highlight the necessity for a contextualized ageing concept. As well as offering a comparative analysis of active ageing policies across the EU, this book examines a range of topics including age discrimination in employment and the freedom of movement of EU citizens from the ageing individual's point of view. It also goes on to describe elder care developments, discussing the ageing individual's autonomy in relation to both traditional inheritance rights and growing instances of dementia. Timely and engaging, this book will appeal to academic scholars and students in relevant areas of law as well as those studying across the social sciences. Exploring a broad range of socio-legal issues in relation to demographic ageing, it will also inform legal practitioners and policymakers alike. Contributors include: M. Axmin, A. Blackham, C. Brokelind, J. Fudge, E. Holm, A. Inghammar, M. Katzin, M. Kullmann, T. Mattsson, P. Norberg, A. Numhauser-Henning, H. Pettersson, M. Roennmar, E. Ryrstedt, K. Scott, E. Trolle OEnnerfors, C. Ulander-Wanman, J.J. Votinius, A. Zbyszewska

With the transformation of the elderly into the major political force in American politics, older Americans have used their increasing numbers and political power to capture a growing and disproportionate share of public resources. This book explores their emergence from obscurity to political preeminence and considers the effect of their power on other members of society. It traces the shift in public attitude from the 18th century to the early 20th century, when the elderly population increased and needed an economic safety net. It then focuses on the elderly's growing power in the late 20th century and examines how they are receiving an expanding share of the budget for such programs as Social Security and Medicare at the expense of such groups as children in poverty.

Asking the provocative question of what one generation owes another, the author shows that as the number of elderly living in poverty has decreased dramatically, the number of children in poverty has skyrocketed. The book concludes by analyzing the demographic projections of what lies ahead--a static working-age population supporting an exploding population of retirees and a baby boom generation that is ill-prepared for its own retirement. For the next few years, the challenge of an aging population will be a national problem; if unaddressed, it will become a national crisis.